An explanation of web site hosting
The most fundamental and frequently utilized type of web hosting is the shared web hosting service. It's a means to host your web page without having to know much about programming and operating a web server. In addition to that, it's also the cheapest type of website hosting and it's in fact affordable for anybody. Nonetheless, what is shared hosting?
What is shared web hosting?
As the name suggests, the shared web page hosting solution is a kind of service where many clients share the reserves of one and the same web hosting server. This denotes that all web hosting server components such as CPU, hard drives, RAM, NICs and so on, are distributed among the customers whose accounts are on that very same web hosting server. This is mainly made possible by creating separate accounts for the separate customers and appointing certain restrictions and quotas for each of them. Those limitations are fixed in order to prevent the users from interfering with each other's accounts and, of course, to hinder the web hosting server from overburdening. Usually, shared web page hosting clients do not have root-level access to the hosting server's config files, which primarily means that they do not have access to anything else on the hosting server aside from their very own shared web hosting account. The site hosting resources that each account may avail of are fixed by the web hosting distributor that owns the server and by the given web site hosting plan. That gives rise to the second vital question:
How are the shared hosting servers shared among the users?
Web hosting suppliers that deliver shared webspace hosting packages normally have diverse web hosting plans. Those packages involve different quotas of hosting features and specs, which actually fix the limitations that a web space hosting package will include. The customer may select between the separate web hosting plans and sign up for the one that he believes will befit him best. The website hosting package will then define what limits the client's account will involve, once opened. The prices and the specifications of the web space hosting packages are chosen by the specific web hosting provider. Based on the policy of the firm, the shared web site hosting solution falls into two groups - the free hosting service and the typical shared service, most recently very famous among "cPanel hosting" companies as a cloud web hosting one. It's not possible to state, which one is more preferable, since they are very different from each other and they indeed depend on the marketing tactics of the particular company and, of course, the demands of the specific user.
What is the difference between the free and the normal shared web site hosting service?
Of course, the main difference between the free and the paid service is in the amount of resources that they involve. Free hosting suppliers are not capable of maintaining an enormous amount of hosting servers, therefore, they merely host more customers on one single web server by reducing the quantity of system resources provided by the accounts. This will be efficient only if the web hosting servers are monitored and administered properly, since the large number of accounts may cause the hosting server to crash repeatedly. Most of the free hosting corporations, though, overlook the quality of the service and hence, it's very tough to stumble upon a free of charge web hosting service that's actually worth the time. The top free hosting vendors usually offer free technical support even to the free web hosting clients, since they want their websites to grow so that they eventually move to a paid website hosting plan, which includes more web hosting resources. One such firm, for example, is FreeHostia.com, which is one of the biggest and eldest free site hosting suppliers in the world.
On the other hand, established shared web hosting providers like Mid Atlantic Web Hosting, for instance, are able to maintain many servers and as a result, they are able to provide much more powerful web hosting packages. Of course, that influences the pricing of the web hosting plans. Paying a higher fee for a web hosting plan, though, does not necessarily mean that this package has a finer quality. The most advantageous services are the balanced ones, which offer a fee that corresponds to the actual service which you're getting. The top web site hosting providers that have been around for a long time are exhibiting their price tags and package specs in an objective fashion, so that the customer may be informed of what exactly he is obtaining. Moreover, some of these give a free extra with the hosting package, such as the 1-click applications installer, complemented with hundreds of cost-free web site themes that are provided by 'Mid Atlantic Web Hosting'. Such web space hosting distributors do worry about their good name and that's why if you select them, you can be confident that you won't get hoaxed into paying for a service that you cannot in fact utilize.
What should I expect from a shared website hosting service?
The shared web page hosting solution is best for those who want to host an average website, which is going to generate a small or medium amount of traffic each month. You cannot expect, though, that a shared web site hosting account will last you a lifetime, since as your business develops, your web site will become more and more resource consuming. Hence, you will have to eventually migrate to a more feature-rich web site hosting solution like a semi-dedicated server, a VPS (a.k.a. a virtual hosting server, or VPS), or why not a dedicated server. So, when selecting a web hosting company, you should also reflect about how they can be of service to you, or else you might end up migrating your domain name manually to a separate vendor, which can create web site problems and even continued downtime for your site. Therefore, selecting a hosting distributor like 'Mid Atlantic Web Hosting', which can present you with the needed domain name and hosting services as you grow, is vital and will spare you a lot of troubles in the long run.